My name is Ed, and I am an addict. My addiction is not to alcohol or any illicit substance. It is, in certain senses, far worse. You see, my addiction is to golf, and there is no known treatment, let alone cure, for my malady.

As a self-confessed golfaholic, virtually all of my leisure travel is configured to cater to my uncontrollable cravings. Hotels without – or far from – golf courses, however stylish and satisfying, are forever crossed off my list of possible destinations. A holiday without a golf course nearby is not, alas, a proper holiday for me. In an ideal world, I want to be at a first-class hotel that has a first-class golf course right on the property. And I recently found exactly such an ideal world at Albany in the Bahamas.

Albany is not just a golf resort but a luxury marina development spanning 600 ocean-front acres on New Providence island. Often, when you go on holiday to the Caribbean or the Maldives, say, you have to take another plane (or boat) at the end of a long flight from London. Not so with Albany, which is less than 10 minutes’ drive from Nassau airport.

The various buildings – residential villas and apartments, restaurants, spa, fitness centre, kids’ club, golf clubhouse and pro shop – are spread over the property and accessed by golf carts. It is a big place that soon seems intimate. Even though it is relatively new, having opened in October 2010, it feels like it has been there for years.

We were shown to a beachfront villa with private access to a long, sandy beach that fringed the calm, warm ocean. Albany, while not a hotel in the strict sense of the word, has all the services and comforts you would normally associate with a five-star hotel. However, if you do not feel like eating in a restaurant or ordering room service, you can self-cater in a fully-equipped kitchen.

A short golf-cart ride away from our villa was the 18-hole, 7,400-yard golf course designed by Ernie Els. After playing my first round, I decided he must have been in a very bad mood when he configured it, because it is a very tough track indeed. However, subsequent rounds made me realise that it was as fair as it was tough, and many of the holes – especially those running alongside the beach – are spectacularly beautiful.

As difficult a sport as golf tends to be for 18-handicap hackers like me, each round inevitably provides one or two shots that bring you back for yet another round. I call these “bath shots”, because I like to soak in a hot tub after my round, close my eyes and relive those soaring, beautiful moments (minus the shanks and hooks that plagued me). At Albany I played back my bath shots not in a bathtub but, of course, in a glorious Jacuzzi overlooking the sea.

Els is one partner in the development, along with Tiger Woods and the British investor Joe Lewis, all of whom have homes there. Other great sports figures who own property at Albany are Justin Rose, Ian Poulter and Adam Scott. How can you go wrong if your Caribbean home from home is the home from home of these top golfers?

Next to the pro shop at the golf course are a spa and a well-equipped fitness centre. If I hadn’t wanted to go golfing, I could have ridden a horse along the beach, taken a lesson in the boxing ring, played tennis, swum in the ocean (or in one of the property’s many large pools), gone fishing, done some island-hopping on a chartered yacht, gone scuba diving or sped around on a jet ski. Of course, I did none of these things. All I wanted to do was play golf. As I said, “My name is Ed…”.

While not strictly in the Caribbean, Albany has much in common with those neighbouring islands – but not the food, for which they are not generally renowned. There are four restaurants on the property, each one different and all, in my opinion, excellent. My favourite was the Vesper Bar & Lounge, on the second floor of Albany House, which was featured in the film Casino Royale. There we were served the best stone-crab claws we’d ever had, including those at the world-famous Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami. Also in Albany House is Aviva, a fine-dining restaurant where, on Saturday nights, a sumptuous roast-pig buffet is served on the beach right at the water’s edge.

Apart from the four restaurants on the property itself, there are some delightful places nearby, such as Mahogany House, a local spot serving excellent grilled fish and a shop selling all sorts of gourmet foods. We also had lunch at one of the restaurants on Arawak Cay, aka “Da Fish Fry,” a district in downtown Nassau full of wooden shacks serving local delicacies such as conch salad and fried snapper.

A trip around the island, with its hodgepodge of developments, made me appreciate the architectural design at Albany all the more. It is contemporary, but without the hard edges of some modern resorts. What also struck me is that this is a community within a community, a place where children are provided for just as lavishly as adults, with their own clubhouse and water park. Thoughtfully, however, there is also a pool and restaurant reserved strictly for those adults who, like us, prefer the peace and quiet of a child-free zone.

Real estate in Albany does not, as you can imagine, come cheap – but compared to the staggering prices of accommodation in London and New York, the two cities I know best, it is relatively affordable. If I were ready to indulge my addiction to golfing holidays, this would be an ideal place to buy a home, what with Mr Els’s bear of a golf course and the sun and fun of life in Albany.

Albany has a range of villas with three to five bedrooms, starting at £3,500 per night, including a round of golf and golf-cart rental. British Airways has return direct flights from London Heathrow to Nassau from £781.